


Catch as Catch Can

by Missy



Category: Hellboy (Movies), Hellboy - All Media Types
Genre: Beginnings, Cats, F/M, Flirting, Missing Scene, Post-Movie(s), Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 07:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2842787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hellboy wants to get a little peace and quiet, so he brings one of his cats down to Liz' room.   Funny how felines can make for great icebreakers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catch as Catch Can

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kol/gifts).



The early morning brings peace to the BRPD offices. While all around them New York bursts to life and begins its day, the officers of the force were settling down in their rooms for a night’s rest. Many of them took this as a chance to get some shut-eye. Others decided to research cases, or try to take care of extra details. 

Hellboy’s main concern after a long night of bringing about justice was simple: he wants a hot meal and a good night’s sleep. 

There are, as always, complications. At least in this case they’re simple ones; there are seven, they’re furry, and they all have huge, curious eyes. For there are seven cats staring at Hellboy as he prepares his feast, and all of them are after one thing – the fresh slab of salmon he’d brought home for dinner.

“Back off,” he says cheerfully pointing to the row of staring, hungry-looking cats, “this is my salmon and I earned it. Go find Liz and…” At this point the biggest tortie, a one-eyed tom that Liz had impulsively named Patch, decides to crawl into his lap, ruining Hellboy’s very noble speech. Very gently, he starts scratching Patch behind the ears. “Hey, I fed all of you earlier. The package says that’s all you’re supposed to get til the morning, so what’s up with the milk saucer eyes?” But for all of his protests Hellboy soon is surrounded by a ring of purring, rolling, meowing cats. He pats them all, or tries to, while keeping an eye on his supper. 

“All right,” he finally sighs. “Time to spread a little love to Auntie Liz.” _And,_ he thinks, plucking up the tray of food and tucking it in his refrigerator, _give me space to eat._ Soon Blinky’s cupped reverently in his palm and he’s beating a retreat down to Liz’ apartment from the demands of the cats.

She seems surprised to see him. No, not quite surprised – wary. She’s not used to being out of isolation yet and so clings to the doorframe like a shadow. “Hey,” he says, cracking a smile, holding out his right hand. “Brought you a cat.”

Liz takes a curious step forward; her skin is translucent, pale, lit from beneath with some unearthly blue light; staggeringly beautiful, as always. She leans against the doorjam and gives him enough space to enter. “They ganged up on you to get the fish.” She knows; it’s happened more than once, usually whenever he’d been rewarded by a happy merchant for his service with something particularly yummy as he had been this day.

“Are you sure you can’t see the past?” he teases. She rolls her eyes, sits down on the bed and he releases the cat, leaving it to gambol upon the mattress. Liz watches, gently scratching the animal behind its ears. “I don’t know why they’re hungry,” Hellboy observes its toddling, standing nearby. “I’m feeding them the good stuff. Maybe they’re just the jealous kind.”

“Maybe they want some extra attention.” She watches Patch roll back and forth on the mattress, slipping onto his back, offering his belly for scratches. She smiles and reaches for the cat, gently stroking the white fur lining his belly. 

“I play with them every night. Sometimes every morning.” He kneels down beside the bed. “Even taught him to do a couple tricks.” When Patch has his fill of having his belly scratched, Hellboy holds out both his hands and says, “Patch, up.”

The cat stares at his outstretched hands and blinks, his tail twitching. “He did it this morning,” Hellboy mutters, scratching the back of his neck, embarrassed.

Liz gives him a wry smile. “Cats are unpredictable. Just like humans, but with bigger claws,” she says. A flicker of darkness dampens Liz’ expression for a moment, but then she turns welcoming. “You can sit down,” she says. “Unless you don’t want to sit down. I mean you don’t have to unless you need to.”

“It’s cool. All right, Blinky, I’m comin’ in,” he says lightly, then carefully settles onto the bed between Liz and the cat. That makes the mattress list slightly under his weight, and it tilts Liz against him. Afraid of knocking everyone off the mattress, he scoots to rest very carefully at the edge of her bed – and away from a blushing Liz.

“So,” he says, trying to keep the situation casual. “You settling in okay?”

“Yeah,” Liz says carefully. “It’s weird…getting used to people treating me like a normal person.” Not an experiment. Hellboy still feels guilty about that, even though he’d done everything he could to make Liz feel welcome once he’d learned about her traumatic past. 

“Good. Here, you’re as normal as anybody else.”

She holds up her right hand, conjures a streak of bright blue flame. It sputters out a moment after ignition but still glows brightly. Hellboy sits quiet, reverent, knowing how much effort such an act of conjuring takes from her – she’s still not used to controlling her powers, still makes mistakes. All Liz can riposte with is, “do you call this normal?”

“Look at me and lookit you,” he points out. “We’re sitting here playing with a cat, talking about life. That’s as normal as it gets.”

She smiles at that. He still takes pride in being able to wring a grin out of her, even when she feels low. Finally, Liz says, “HB? Do you think we could go out for a while? I’m hungry, and the food here’s gross. I just want to sit in a diner and have some meatloaf and watch New York go by.”

“Hey, sure,” Hellboy said – his heart leapt into his throat when she said she’d like to be alone with him and now it’s doing a samba against his ribcage. “Just promise you’ll bring your camera.”

She flushes. Apparently she hadn’t known that he knows all about her hobby. “Okay. Give me a second to get ready?”

He nods, scooping the cat gently up. “C’mon pal. Time to go nap with your brothers.” 

As she closes the door behind him, Hellboy does a quiet, victorious little dance right in the hallway, complete with his sleepy kitten partner.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays! Hope you like your treat!


End file.
